david: president obama almost certain to characterize mitt romney's tax plans tonight as tax cuts for the rich, or awe kise him of advocating trickle-down economics as he has done before but is that a fair characterization. where did it come from? famed economist thomas sowell has been looking into all this. he wrote an essay, trickle down theory and tax cuts for the rich published by hoover institution press and professor sowell joins us now. professor, always an honor to have you here. thanks for coming in. >> thanks for having me. david: so has any republican actually ever advocated something called trickle-down economics? >> neither a republican nor a democrat, nor member of any other group, nor any human being that i know of ever advocated that. david: so where does it come from? >> it comes from people who are opposed to tax cuts and who say that the people who want the tax cuts just want to give more money to the rich and in hopes their prosperity will trickle down. no one has ever said that. years ago in my column i challenged anyone to name any human being who had ever said i